Best of
Short-Story-Collection

1968

Dance of the Happy Shades


Alice Munro - 1968
    In these dazzling stories she deals with the self-discovery of adolescence, the joys and pains of love and the despair and guilt of those caught in a narrow existence. And in sensitively exploring the lives of ordinary men and women, she makes us aware of the universal nature of their fears, sorrows and aspirations.

More Tales of Pirx the Pilot


Stanisław Lem - 1968
    Translated by Louis Iribarne, assisted by Magdalena Majcherczyk and Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

All the Myriad Ways


Larry Niven - 1968
    Includes: All the Myriad Ways (1968); Passerby (1969); For a Foggy Night (1968); Wait It Out [Known Space] (1968); The Jigsaw Man [Known Space] (1967); Not Long Before the End (1969); Unfinished Story No. 1 (1970); Unfinished Story No. 2 (1971); Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex (essay, 1969); Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation (essay, 1969); The Theory and Practice of Time Travel (essay, 1971) Inconstant Moon (1971); What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers? (1971); Becalmed in Hell [Known Space] (1965).

The Man With the Heart in the Highlands and Other Early Stories


William Saroyan - 1968
    Offers a selecttion of the master of human comedy's short stories from the 1930s and 1940s.

In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories


William H. Gass - 1968
    In their obsessions, Gass’s Midwestern dreamers are like the "grotesques" of Sherwood Anderson, but in their hyper-linguistic streams of consciousness, they are the match for Joyce’s Dubliners. First published in 1968, this book begins with a beguiling thirty-three page essay and has five fictions: the celebrated novella "The Pedersen Kid," "Mrs. Mean," "Icicles," "Order of Insects," and the title story.

We the Underpeople


Cordwainer Smith - 1968
    Underpeople are slave humanoids bred from animals. Planet Norstrilia is the only source of drug stroon that makes man immortal, where Rod McBan is a boy, yet owns Earth. On Earth, he joins C'Mell and the Underpeople to bring back freedom.

The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Volume One: Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist


Fritz Leiber - 1968
      Many decades before George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, Grand Master Fritz Leiber ruled the sword-and-sorcery universe. These three short story collections chronicle the unconventional adventures of Leiber’s endearing antiheroes: barbarian Fafhrd and former wizard’s apprentice, the Gray Mouser.  Swords and Deviltry: Fafhrd, a handsome barbarian of the Steppes, is seduced by a beautiful prostitute and her equally intoxicating city, while the Gray Mouser, a slum rat wizard-in-training, is tempted by the dark arts. The two men meet on a night of multiple thieveries and an enduring partnership is born.  Swords Against Death: Rogue swordsmen and devoted companions Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pursue ill-gotten fortunes within the confines of Lankhmar. They cross paths with two wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, and a most violent clash ensues. Eventually, following further adventures, the two antiheroes end up as indentured swordsman servants to their former foes.  Swords in the Mist: A cloud of concentrated hatred and lean times in Lankhmar compels Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to temporarily depart the most corrupt metropolis in all of Nehwon as they seek adventure in the realm of the Sea-King—and on a different world entirely.   This must-read collection of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser short stories features multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated tales, and includes the acclaimed novella Ill Met in Lankhmar.

Ship the Kids on Ahead


Bill Stokes - 1968
    State Journal

The People Trap


Robert Sheckley - 1968
    Contents:7 • The People Trap • (1968)28 • The Victim from Space • (1957)48 • Shall We Have a Little Talk? • (1965)75 • Restricted Area • (1953)93 • The Odour of Thought • (1953)(aka The Odor of Thought)106 • The Necessary Thing • (1955)119 • Redfern's Labyrinth • (1968)125 • Proof of the Pudding • (1952)134 • The Laxian Key • (1954)146 • The Last Weapon • (1953)156 • Fishing Season • (1953)172 • Dreamworld • (1968)183 • Diplomatic Immunity • (1953)205 • Ghost V • (1954)

The Bitter Smell of Almonds


Arnošt Lustig - 1968
    As with all of Lustig's works, these tales reverberate with themes of loss and contradiction, with the torments of suffering and survival. In The Bitter Smell of Almonds, Lustig asks questions as old and as universal as humankind's search for the meaning of existence; and his characters, often juxtaposed against people or situations they cannot comprehend, attempt to come to terms with the unthinkable and with life itself.